A dominating victory last week enabled the New England Patriots to atone for a few recent playoff failures on their home turf, one of which came at the hands of the Baltimore Ravens.
Getting payback for that startling loss will be secondary when the two conference powerhouses lock horns at Gillette Stadium this time around, however, with a spot in Super Bowl XLVI at stake in Sunday's 2011 AFC Championship Game.
The Ravens dealt New England the worst playoff defeat of the abundantly- successful Bill Belichick/Tom Brady era in a 2009 AFC First-Round clash in Foxborough, utilizing a punishing running game and stifling defense to produce an emphatic 33-14 win that afternoon.
"We didn't start that game off the way we wanted to on defense," Patriots linebacker Rob Ninkovich recalled. "A team that potent and tough, you can't give up a big run for a touchdown to start the game off like that. Obviously, that's something that we really need to focus on, not letting up any big plays like that, especially to start the game off. The momentum they gained from that obviously just snowballed for the rest of the game."
The Ravens finished with a whopping 234 rushing yards and four touchdowns on the ground, with quarterback Joe Flacco attempting a mere 10 passes. Brady, meanwhile, was intercepted three times and lost a fumble while recording a substandard 49.1 passer rating that was easily the lowest of the two-time Super Bowl MVP's storied postseason career.
New England was also plagued by poor starts in each of its last two games prior to this season's playoffs, but was able to overcome those sluggish beginnings in wins over Miami and Buffalo. The AFC's top seed had no such issues in last weekend's Divisional Round test, however.
The Patriots sped out to a two-touchdown advantage midway through the first quarter in its matchup with surprising Denver, and didn't take their foot off the gas pedal in thumping the overmatched Broncos by a 45-10 count. The lopsided result ended a frustrating string of three consecutive postseason losses since New England's last AFC Championship appearance, a 21-12 decision over San Diego in the 2007 season.
Brady was razor-sharp in notching his 15th career playoff win, connecting on 26-of-34 throws for 363 yards and tying an NFL postseason record with six touchdown passes.
The Patriots now enter Sunday's showdown having won nine in a row, and the club has put up 31 points or more on all but one occasion during that tear.
Second-seeded Baltimore earned its third conference title game berth in franchise history and first since 2008 with this past Sunday's 20-13 ousting of AFC South champion Houston, with an opportunistic defensive display playing a major part of that outcome as well.
The Ravens capitalized on four Texans' turnovers, with 17 of their 20 points coming directly off three Houston miscues. The final takeaway, an interception by veteran safety Ed Reed, thwarted a potential scoring attempt with the Texans down by seven points with under two minutes left.
Source: http://www.bradenton.com/2012/01/18/3800694/nfl-playoff-preview-baltimore.html
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